Bekele targets world record

Dubai - Kenenisa Bekele was just six seconds shy of breaking the world record at the Berlin Marathon in September

Kenenisa Bekele was just six seconds shy of breaking the world record at the Berlin Marathon in September. It was heart-breaking, no doubt. But come Friday and the three-time Olympic gold medallist is setting his sights on obliterating Dennis Kimetto's record of 2:02:57 at the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon.
The Ethiopian didn't have very good memories of his debut run in 2014 after injuries forced him to pull out of the race. He would like to put that behind now as he says he is fit this year and looking forward to Friday.
"I plan to break the world record but it's a race and anything can happen. The Dubai course is similar to the Berlin course so I hope I will have a good race here. Although I plan to attack the world record I can't say I will break it as every race is different.
"During the Berlin race I had planned to run my personal best, I had not planned for a world record. But now that I'm feeling good (health wise) and I've got experience from the last marathon I think I have a good opportunity to go for the world record in Dubai.
"Dubai is known to have a fast course so anything is possible. I'm fully confident and am sure for a better timing, better than Berlin," said the soft-spoken Bekele admitting that marathon is a different cup of tea.
"Marathon needs a lot of time and preparation," said the long distance runner who holds the world and Olympic records in both the 5,000 and 10,000 metres. "You also need a lot of experience that's why I was struggling in marathon running in the past few years. I was also not fully healthy that time but after two years I'm really fit and healthy enough now for this marathon," he concluded. - clareto@khaleejtimes.com